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Alumni to receive awards
Hauber to receive top honor at ceremony on April 28
By BARBARA A. BYERS
Reporter Contributor
The UB Alumni Association will present its highest honor, the Samuel P. Capen Award, to J. Grant Hauber, B.S. '48, at the association's Achievement Awards Ceremony, to be held at 6 p.m. April 28 in the Adam's Mark Hotel.
Hauber provided the first funding commitment for the $7 million Alfierio Center in the School of Management. The convening area and atrium was named the J. Grant and Marcia S. Hauber Commons after Hauber and his wife. Hauber attended UB on the GI Bill, and after graduation he began a successful 45-year career as vice president and portfolio manager at Harold C. Brown, a Buffalo-area financial services firm. He retired in 2000.
Receiving the Community Leadership Medal will be Muriel Howard, Ph.D. '85, Ed.M. '73, the seventh president and first woman to head Buffalo State College. Before taking that post, Howard spent 23 years at UB in a variety of leadership roles, including vice president for public service and urban affairs. The Community Leadership Medal recognizes Howard's outstanding accomplishments in making the UB community a better place to live and work.
Yanhong Robin Lee, M.S. '94, founder and chief executive officer of Baidu.com, the Chinese search engine equivalent of Google and Yahoo, will receive the George W. Thorn Award. The Thorn award is given to UB graduates under the age of 40 in recognition of their outstanding national or international contributions to their career field or academic area. Initially created as a tool to provide search services behind the scenes for major Chinese Web portals, Baidu became a freestanding search engine in September 2001. Li twice has been named one of China's Top Ten Influential IT Characters, has been ranked among the "Top Ten Pioneer Entrepreneurs in China" and as one of the "Promising CEOs" on the list of The 13 New Elite in Capital Beijing.
The Clifford C. Furnas Memorial Award will be presented to Robert H. Goldsmith, B.S. '51, retired president, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Rohr Industries, a Fortune 500 company. The Furnas award is given to a graduate of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences or the disciplines of natural sciences and mathematics within the College of Arts and Sciences who has distinguished himself in a field of science, thereby bringing honor to the university. In 1956, Goldsmith began a successful 26-year career with General Electric as an engineer, and worked his way up to corporate vice president with responsibility for GE's commercial aircraft engine and gas turbine divisions. He left GE to become president, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Rohr Industries, an aerospace manufacturing company now known as Rohr Inc. After retiring from Rohr in 1993, Goldsmith has continued to work with and finance various start-up companies, such as Exten Industries, now known as MultiCell Industries. MultiCell and its subsidiary, Xenogenics Corp., create liver cell-based technologies and products for the development of new medicines and treatments for a variety of liver-related diseases.
Joseph R. Natiella, D.D.S., '69 will receive the Dr. Richard T. Sarkin Award for Outstanding Teaching. The Sarkin award, instituted in 2005, is named in honor of the late Richard T. Sarkin, M.D., Ed.M. '98, an accomplished pediatrician renowned for his teaching expertise and his efforts to improve physician-patient communication. An internationally known researcher in oral pathology, Natiella is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and a professor in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences. His sense of humor and an open-door philosophy embody the ideals of the Sarkin award.
The Dr. Philip B. Wels Outstanding Service Award will be given to Robert G. Morris, B.A. '67. A member of the College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Advisory Council since its inception, Morris has made significant contributions to UB. He is a partner and chief investment officer for Lord Abbett & Co., an independent investment management firm with more than $93 billion in assets. He and his wife, Carol, established an endowed fund in 2005 to create the Signature Center of Excellence in 21st Century Music. Morris also chairs the Dean's Advisory Council's Resource Development Committee, which identifies and seeks private support from individuals, corporations and foundations.
Two alumni will receive the Distinguished Alumni designation in recognition of their exceptional career accomplishments, community or university service, or research and scholarly activity. They are:
Rear Admiral Robert B. Murrett, B.A. '75, Chief Intelligence Officer for the United States Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence. His responsibilities include managing the resources to support a global complex of shore-based intelligence commands and facilities, providing highly trained officer and enlisted intelligence specialists to serve with the fleet, and managing more than 9,500 civilian and military personnel. After graduating from UB with a degree in history, Murrett went on to earn master's degrees in government and strategic intelligence from Georgetown University and the Defense Intelligence College, respectively. He reports directly to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and to Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Jack C. Fisher, M.D. '62, emeritus professor of surgery and former head of the Division of Plastic Surgery at University of California-San Diego, and author, humanitarian, historian and loyal UB alumnus. Fisher has authored or co-authored more than 200 published works that have enhanced the fields of transplantation immunity, reconstructive burn surgery, chronic wound healing and biomaterials tolerance. In 1977 he founded INTERFACE, a volunteer group of plastic and other reconstructive surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and pediatricians who give their time and expertise to offer correction of hand deformities, burn reconstruction and other congenital and acquired deformities. In 1962, Fisher purchased the book "Selected Papers, Surgical and Scientific" by Roswell Park, and a chapter entitled "Reminiscences of McKinley Week" ignited a historical interest that led to the research and publication in 2001 of his own book, "Stolen Glory: The McKinley Assassination." The book chronicles the life of McKinley's assassin, the shooting of the president and the care he received. In the book, Fisher refutes the notion that the president's death was a result of botched surgery and subsequent post-operative treatment.
Four UB students also will be awarded $500 J. Scott Fleming Scholarships at the ceremony. The scholarship recognizes full-time undergraduate and graduate students whose volunteer and leadership efforts similarly have helped to promote student involvement at UB and have enhanced the student experience through their extracurricular work. They are Bonnie Bielec, a sophomore majoring in Environmental Engineering with a minor in French; Lauren Behlmer, a junior occupational therapy major; Nicholas Boucounis, a senior studying business administration with a concentration in marketing; and Loren Peterson, a senior majoring in business administration with a concentration in internal auditing and registered accounting. She also has a minor in biochemical pharmacology.